In a significant escalation of the political and legal battle over one of South Africa’s most dysfunctional municipalities, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Free State has formally and unequivocally endorsed a high-stakes court application seeking to carve up the embattled Maluti-a-Phofung (MaP) Local Municipality. The move signals a strategic shift from political criticism to active support for a structural solution to what opponents describe as a decade of entrenched maladministration, political capture, and catastrophic service delivery failure.
DA Free State Leader Roy Jankielsohn, in a hard-hitting statement released on Monday, 8 December 2025, declared the party’s full backing for the application brought by the New Greater Harrismith Association (NGHA), a coalition of ratepayers and businesses. The NGHA is asking the Bloemfontein High Court to review and set aside the Municipal Demarcation Board’s (MDB) decision of July 2025, which rejected a proposal to separate the towns of Harrismith, Kestell, and surrounding commercial farms from the larger MaP municipality.
Jankielsohn lambasted the MDB’s ruling as “devoid of rationality and blind to reality,” arguing that it perpetuates the suffering of residents in the more economically viable western section of the municipality. “The MDB’s decision is a death sentence for the people of Harrismith and Kestell,” Jankielsohn stated. “It condemns them to remain shackled to a bankrupt, captured, and collapsed municipal entity that has proven itself incapable of providing the most basic services. This is not about political preference; it is about the constitutional right to basic services and accountable government.”
A Municipality in Perpetual Crisis
Maluti-a-Phofung, encompassing towns like Harrismith, Phuthaditjhaba, and Kestell, has become a national byword for municipal failure. It is under longstanding provincial administration due to its inability to govern itself, saddled with billions in unsustainable debt—primarily to Eskom and the water board—and plagued by daily crises including rampant water shedding, sewerage spills, and the near-total collapse of infrastructure maintenance. Critics allege the municipality has been a site of deep-rooted patronage networks and looting.
The NGHA’s case contends that the viable western region, which contributes the lion’s share of the municipality’s revenue through its commercial agriculture, logistics, and tourism sectors, is being “milked dry” to prop up the dysfunctional whole, with little to no return in services or development. They argue for the creation of a new, smaller municipality that would be financially sustainable and directly accountable to its ratepayers.
The Legal and Political Battle Lines
The DA’s public endorsement adds considerable political weight and potential resources to the legal challenge. Jankielsohn framed the fight in constitutional terms, stating, “This application is a test of whether our institutions exist to serve the people or to protect failed, captured political projects. The residents’ right to sustainable services outweighs an irrational bureaucratic desire to maintain a clearly unworkable status quo.”
The ANC-led provincial government and the current MaP administration are expected to oppose the application vigorously, arguing that partition is not a solution and would further impoverish the remaining eastern section centered on Phuthaditjhaba. They are likely to advocate instead for continued provincial intervention and “turnaround” strategies, measures that have yielded little success to date.
Political analysts see the case as a potential precedent. “If successful, this could open the floodgates for similar applications from economically productive regions trapped in failing municipalities across South Africa,” said governance expert Prof. Sethulego Matebesi. “It challenges the very principle of municipal demarcation and asks the courts to rule on whether perpetual failure constitutes a valid reason for redrawing boundaries.”
The case is set to be a protracted and fiercely contested legal battle, with the first court dates expected in early 2026. For the residents of Harrismith and the DA, the lawsuit represents a last-ditch institutional recourse to escape what they call a “sinking ship,” setting the stage for a landmark ruling on municipal accountability, viability, and the limits of communal suffering in the name of bureaucratic continuity.
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